Thursday, 12 February 2015

A
substantial radio interview yesterday, with Drive 105.3 FM’s Eileen Walsh, got
me thinking about audience again. It’s always fascinating to talk about my work
–obviously. I think I know what it’s about, after all, I wrote it.

But every
time I talk to a reader, I’m forced to think again.

A novel is
not a lecture, thank goodness. Although I recall the odd one that headed that
way and made me a tad annoyed: if I can hear the author ‘lecturing’ me, then
someone has come out of character. Having spent years lecturing in a range of
subjects I know that a lecture is all about the point: making it clear, accurate, supported by facts and worthy
opinions.

As the
author, of course I have a point to my work, and I hope I manage to make it
somewhere appropriately in my stories but it’s not something to get hung up
about.

Readers find
the point. And as people resonate with different things for different reasons,
that ‘point’ may be something you hadn’t realised you were saying –a subtle sub-point,
if you like, or (scary) some subconscious stuff that leaked into your work.

I get
diverse reactions to …but I love you. One
reader focussed on the depiction of student life, and the engaging psychotherapy.
Another considered the same-sex relationship a sideline, seeing the whole
picture of relationships generally. Another took comfort and acknowledgement from
the exploration of sexual identity. Yesterday’s interview became a discussion
on erotica (the imminent film release of Fifty Shades colouring that a little).

When the
novel was first published I wanted people to ‘hear’ the story exactly as I
meant it. It took me some months, and much feedback to realise that once it’s
out there, you cannot control how people read it. It’s not yours anymore.

Relax.

The fun is
when more people read it, and interpret it, and share it.

Then you
have an audience – hopefully a wide one.

I’m telling
myself this as I work through book two…don’t get hung up on the ‘point’, Sinéad,
relax and enjoy writing it, the readers will do their thing.